Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Within The Hour.

Remember back at the beginning of the year when I named 24 as my Number 1 show of 2006. I can honestly say that it was. Every episode was cleverly written, action-packed, and wrapped with a big fat jaw-dropper of an ending. It was like a roller coaster ride except the entire ride felt like that moment when you just begin going downhill and start screaming. It was awesome.

Now if that endorsement for some reason enticed anyone out there to start watching this season of 24, I give you my utmost apologies. This season has royally sucked. It’s been a disaster. I’m talkin’ worse than the season when Kim got stuck in a bear trap, stalked by a cougar, and trapped in a psycho’s bomb shelter all within a 20 minute time span. Seriously, this season has literally been worse than that.

I usually tout myself as a viewer who can typically do a pretty good job of suspending my disbelief. But for some reason, I can’t this time around. Here’s what I think is wrong: too much crap is happening to random people, well maybe not more than previous seasons but the intensity of the crap is too extreme. Nearly every member of CTU and the White House staff has been beat up, tortured, shot, and/or drilled. Yes, drilled. Then within one episode, they’re up and at ‘em again—way more so than previous seasons.

Here’s the thing, I DON’T CARE. If the person who’s getting beat up, tortured, shot, and/or drilled isn’t Jack or at least someone very important to Jack, then seriously, I DON’T CARE.

And it’s pretty obvious that this season’s writing has been left to the interns. I swear if I hear the phrase “Within the hour” one more time, I will refuse to watch next season. Yeah, we get it, the show’s in real time, you don’t have to constantly remind us that something is going to happen sometime during the course of an hour long episode—that’s why we are watching.

Bottom line, 24 is about one thing and one thing only: Jack Freaking Bauer. That’s why we watch and that’s what made last season so successful, it was all about him. There have been some eps this season where he’s gotten 5 mins of screen time tops, which is a joke. Honestly, the only redeeming thing about this season has been the introduction of Brother Schroder’s character, Mike Doyle. And seriously, is it just me or is he still sporting the Silver Spoons hair cut?